


The Paintball Skirmish

by December21st



Category: Castle
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-14
Updated: 2012-01-14
Packaged: 2017-10-29 12:38:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/319962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/December21st/pseuds/December21st
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Putting the 'casual' into 'casualties.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Paintball Skirmish

**Author's Note:**

> Response to the 'Your Choice' challenge at LiveJournal's 'Castleland.'
> 
> Spoilers for "Knockout."

The paintball fight had been a bad idea from the start.

Castle had suggested a practice run before the big inter-Precinct paintball fight next month. He knew a place set up in an old warehouse in Jersey that took smaller groups, so the four of them -- Beckett, Ryan, Esposito and himself -- could splatter each other with bright colors and prepare for the upcoming war. Alexis had wheedled her way into coming along, and somehow -- he still wasn't entirely sure how -- his mother had ended up being the extra person they needed to keep the teams even.

'Even' was something of a misnomer. Random chance had put Ryan, Esposito and Alexis on the same team. The partners had apparently adopted Alexis as their little sister and then let her in on their partner-based psychic link, because the three had been completely trouncing Castle's team. The aptitude that Alexis displayed in helping the pair take out their boss and her family was a little frightening.

In contrast, Castle and Beckett showed a singular lack of coordination. Their inability to agree on even the most basic of strategy and tactics resulted in their demise at the hands of their colleagues and Castle's progeny time and time again.

Martha took the simple tack of completely ignoring both of them and making her own solo forays into enemy territory, usually while gaining no useful information at all. Deciding to make the most of a bad situation, she decided to act out every death scene. "If I can't kill them, I can at least make them sorry they killed me." So she fell to the ground with grace and gasped dying words of lost love and secret plans, of gypsy curses and hidden treasures.

Beckett eventually followed suit, proving (if nothing else) that there was a reason she didn't often work undercover. Martha commented that she had never seen a corpse giggle quite so much.

And finally Castle crumpled to the ground after a splash of lavender from his own daughter's gun caught him square in the chest. As he lay there, blinking in surprise, Beckett rushed to his side in a spectacular display of overacting. "Castle, are you all right? Rick, can you hear me? Stay with me, Rick." And then she leaned in next to his ear and whispered "I love you, Rick."

Castle had never felt so alive in his life.


End file.
